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Private-College Presidents Getting Higher Salaries

Presidents at 36 private colleges earned more than $1 million in 2009, up from 33 the previous year, according to a study by The Chronicle of Higher Education.

The annual study, using data from federal tax documents, found that the median compensation — including salary and benefits — was $385,909, a 2.2 percent increase from the previous year. The median base salary increased by 2.8 percent to $294,489.

The highest-paid president in 2009 was Constantine Papadakis of Drexel University. Mr. Papadakis, who died in April that year, earned $4,912,127, most of it from life insurance and previously accrued compensation paid to his widow. His base salary was $195,726.

The next three top earners — William R. Brody of Johns Hopkins University ($3,821,886); Donald V. DeRosa of University of the Pacific ($2,357,540); and Henry S. Bienen of Northwestern University ($2,240,775) — also left their presidencies.

The three highest earners who remained as chief executives were Nicholas S. Zeppos of Vanderbilt University ($1,890,274); Charles H. Polk of Mountain State University, in West Virginia ($1,843,746); and Shirley Ann Jackson of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute ($1,771,877).

While the private colleges in the study — The Chronicle’s similar study of salaries at public universities appears in the spring — spent an average of 0.4 percent of their budgets on presidential salaries, there were outliers.

Mr. Polk’s $1.8 million compensation amounted to 3.5 percent of the budget at Mountain State University, which has had accreditation problems and a low 2.5 percent graduation rate for first-time, full-time students, according to The Chronicle’s report.

Although presidential pay generally has little effect on the budget, its symbolic importance makes it a likely target of criticism at a time when pay inequities have become a rallying point for the Occupy protest movement, Jack Stripling, a reporter at The Chronicle said in a call with journalists on Friday. He pointed out that Amy Gutmann, president of the University of Pennsylvania, came under fire from an Occupy group last month even though her salary of $1.3 million is less than 1 percent of the institutional budget.

While the typical president earned 3.7 times as much as the average pay and benefits of a full professor at the same institution, the study found great variations. Kevin J. Manning at Stevenson University in Maryland earned $1,491,655 — 16.1 times as much as the pay and benefits of the average full professor there.

Five other presidents earned at least 10 times as much as a typical professor at their colleges: Ms. Jackson of Rensselaer; Mr. Zeppos of Vanderbilt; Frances Lucas of Millsaps College, in Jackson, Miss.; Jehuda Reinharz of Brandeis University (he is no longer president); and J. Timothy Cloyd of Hendrix College, in Conway, Ark.

At the other end, Patrick E. White at Wabash College in Indiana earned $239,207, about twice the average professor’s compensation at the college.

The Chronicle’s interactive graphic on presidential compensation is at chronicle.com/compensation. Salaries for private college presidents have grown far more, adjusted for inflation, in recent years than professorial pay.

In the decade from 1999-2000 to 2009-10, average presidential pay at the 50 wealthiest universities increased by 75 percent, to $876,792, while professorial pay increased 14 percent, to $179, 970.

“The job of college president has changed dramatically in the last 30 years, as have the demands,” David L. Warren, the president of the National Association of Independent Colleges and Universities, said in a statement. “There is just a small pool of candidates who possess the skill set that is required and are willing to take on the stressful 24/7 nature of the position.”

Pressure on private college presidents is increasing on many fronts, Mr. Warren said, including budgetary challenges, uncertainty about the sustainability of the traditional financial model, calls for further regulation, greater competition, growing student financial need, and consumer concerns about rising tuition.

A study released last year by the Council of Independent Colleges found that less than one in four chief academic officers at private colleges planned to pursue a presidency.

A version of this article appears in print on December 5, 2011, on Page A17 of the New York edition with the headline: Private-College Presidents Getting Higher Salaries. Order Reprints|Today's Paper|Subscribe